BELGRADE, September 3. /TASS/. The body of former Bosnian Serb Army commander Ratko Mladic, who died in custody in The Hague, will be taken to Belgrade late on Thursday, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said.

"As far as I know, his body has already been retrieved and is to arrive in Serbia later in the day," he told reporters.

According to Vucic, details of his funeral will be announced later by his family. "Tens of thousands of people" are expected to attend the farewell ceremony, he added.

Mladic died in UN custody in The Hague on August 27. The International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals, which succeeded the ICTY, had repeatedly rejected his defense team’s requests for early release on health grounds.

Milorad Dodik, leader of the ruling Alliance of Independent Social Democrats in Republika Srpska, described Mladic’s death in custody as a deliberate killing. Vucic said the Hague court had deliberately prevented Mladic from dying a dignified death in Serbia.